I'd already decided not to buy an Xbox One after the failure rate of the previous console, even though it was my multi format box of choice having taken the plunge for most of its life. I'm amazed so many people had to wait for MS to eulogise the new one in detail before getting pissed.

But still, having gone through the arseache of dumping almost my entire collection on eBay over the last couple of years, some of the noise being made in the media about their approach is starting to wear rather thin.

It's like people are bemoaning the loss of the consumer society - things to own, clutter, age, devalue. Art those are not. Memories of quality experiences are all that matter. I'd like to own them as conveniently as possible and at a price to suit.

That's probably the bit that will either cause it to fail, or come into line. How much am I prepared to pay to rent? If it's prohibitive I'll walk away. Hopefully will most others. if it's sensible to rent, lease, call it what you will (Warcraft is subscription, worthless off line and nobody cares), I'm glad of one less thing in the house. Reply+1

@Uncompetative well, indeed. A couple of years ago a little French studio released Fuel using their proprietary procedural terrain generation engine and what it showed is possible was extraordinary

Middleware is a joke though, really, as far as the consumer is concerned. Can anyone name me an Unreal or Crysis powered game that came close to matching the success of the IP of the people who made it? Fair play to them for making lots of money but I can't feel anything but resentment as a gamer at the thought of yet another round of expensive licensing deals, poor support, and ultimately inferior but expensive products filling storeroom boxes Reply-1

@StingingVelvet again you make it sound so black and white when the strength of this piece is it explains the complexity of having some principles and staying in business. There is regret and frustration but bitterness? I just don't see it Reply+5

@StingingVelvet What a depressingly glib summary. I can't see that how they dealt with publishers in any sense added up to the fact that they found themselves adrift with a large staff and no signed projects. It is as you note "business", but the point is when you can't get "business" unless you placate the inveestor who demands a huge team but can on a whim cut and run then even with the best of intentions a developer who wants to have a vision will struggle to survive

Reminds me my first job in the industry was with a company that got around that by forcing all staff onto temporary contracts. What a bunch of cunts they were. Reply+5

@atomicjuicer trouble with second sight is it couldn't really decide what it wanted to be - there was little point in using the powers when the gun got you through. great mechanics all round though. Reply0

@des I meant there is more to the publisher than just one strand. Like there is more to EA than the 'Partners' group that FRD say screwed over TSFP

It's not uncommon to have the publisher production group and the dev team in full agreement on the issues only to have completely unqualified so called marketing people force a change of direction that subsequently can't be resolved. Then rub salt into the wound when it comes time to do the bit they are supposed to be qualified for by saying they don't want to as "it's not very good."

Well no shit sherlock. The dev team know that, and if they're to live to fight another day, then the thing needs to return a profit, which is impossible if you have a weak product and no marketing. Reply+2

@des That's possibly the most depressing thing about a failed dev cycle - the amount of sway 'marketing' (remember teh line in Father Ted about how the clever son becomes a doctor and the idiot a priest?) holds means the publisher production group and dev team get forced down very damaging avenues, only to find at the end of the day even the satisfaction of your toil making money is denied because the people who put you on that track say they'd juust be throwing money away. Only in games does this seemt to happen - movies and music seem to cope better Reply+2

@blazehaze Direction, sure, but not the major political or financial decisions that actually caused the events the interviews cover. At the time from his perspective the enterprise clesrly held a lot of promise, unless you actually think he was deluded and should instead have designed the game based on forum posts Reply+1

The puzzles, combat and level design is some of the best the series has seen, but I've found more to get irritated about than any other Zelda game.

The flying is rubbish. I know people got bored with sailing so can't please everyone but I'm sure there's a reason they did horse, ship, train first and this was all that's left. Still, it's so dreadfully dull and frustrating

Characterisation - the least engaging of any Zelda game. Wanted to kick the TV in repeatedly that first hour

The repetition - I don't need you to give me the same message and open my inventory every single time I do something I've done countless times before. Baffled they let you choose minimal HUD but that wasnt taken into account in the messaging

The repetition - I blame the "sky" for really removing the sense of scale and making it perfectly obvious I'm going back to the same places time after time

The visuals - just a bit muddy. Don't think they've improved on either TWW or TP

All said am still post 50 hours and looking forward to seeing how it ties up Reply-1

We've got internet foghorns to thank for this. Those who went into meltdown pre original Xbox launch at the idea of lazy devs shipping shite code and dripping out patches to fix. Trouble is it's not just fixes that go in TU - balancing, adding bits and pieces in response to community feedback, it all gets crushed underfoot unless you pay an intentionally prohibitive amount of money each time. Reply+1

I'm guessing the Mass Effect 2 issue is really that EA wasn't interested in a Mac version so another developer/publisher is taking it on and they'd be none to keen at seeing their potential userbase reduced. Reply0

Black was indeed fab, even though it was made by an entirely different team.

I'll keep hoping this is great, but as far as previews go this could have come straight from 1up. It allows Black his say without really venturing any opinions ("breathless" aside), other then "are you sure you should be showing this?" Reply+1

My most unforgettable moment was hanging around near a conversation between a pimp and a prossie, feeling very clever and sneaky, biding my time, when all of a sudden it got heated, POP, down she went. I went cold. Could have saved her. Must be more responsible in future. Gut wrenching and rarely equalled in any other game. Reply+2

People are rightly frustrated with the connectivity issues but they were just impossible to predict, it hardly sets the tone for enjoying what's to come if you struggle to join a game.

Additionally there's an awful lot to learn with the three species, but those who click really seem to be enjoying it enormously.

It's bound to be hard to understand why the demo was structured this way but it's simply that we wanted everyone to play all three, as many times as they wanted, against other players since to achieve that in single player we ran the risk of not giving enough of the game beyond the extensive single player tutorials.

In other words, plenty of valid criticism but really hope people aren't put off persevering, there's a lot of fun to be had Reply+13

"Seems a bit rich calling him "The brain behind GRID and DiRT". I'm not saying he isn't talented, but it takes more than one person to make a good racing game. What about the other leads such as design, art and code? Are they still present?"

If it was a movie presumably you wouldn't object to the director being called the brains behind it? Reply-9